TTIP and TTP threatening democracy

The Blog

The TTIP and TPP are secret trade deals not discussed by mainstream media, which would enable foreign companies to sue national governments - i.e. enable rich stakeholders to sue a government for representing its citizens.

A short video published at the Representative Press YouTube channel breaks down the controversy surrounding the TTIP and TPP for netizens, where previously the secret deals were only criticized in left-wing circles or among students of International Relations. One argument presented holds that foreign investors would gain a greater say than citizens over government policy through such trade deals, turning governments into devices serving foreign commercial interests rather than the people. The hijacking of health and environmental policies to maintain profits of distant actors with little interest in your well-being or your community would quickly follow.

In addition to these concerns, TTIP and TTP also contain the same pernicious legislation as SOPA and PIPA, which sought to censor the Internet. The result has been that online activist movements such as Fight for the Future's Battle for the Net campaign in the US and 38 Degrees in the UK are trying to mobilize netizens against these deals, calling upon Internet users to influence lawmakers to that end.

BREAKING: #FastTrack legislation for #TPP introduced. Take action: it's an Internet emergency. http://t.co/Roha5BWZRA pic.twitter.com/xEzLbD4JOs
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) April 16, 2015

A petition to the White House recently failed to achieve sufficient signatures, suggesting a need to increase publicity for this cause, but other mechanisms of activism exist to challenge the secret negotiations.

In sum, the TTIP and TTP are an assault on the ability of democracy to function, reducing governments to foreign-controlled dictatorships making decisions based on the concerns of foreign stakeholders rather than their own people.

UK and US authority figures dismiss the public as uninformed and unaware of what is best for it, and try to override any form of pressure exerted by the public. In the case of the UK, their attitude is well-demonstrated in this striking recording back in November 2014, in which MPs shout down public concerns over the TTIP, dismissing them for not being "privy" to special information "bought in" by UK politicians to influence their decisions.

The clubof.info Blog

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Cable LIES About Title II Reclassification

@fightfortheftr.

Lobbyists for big cable companies are lying to US lawmakers with the intent to destroy the free and open Internet, the only home true freedom of expression has ever known.

It is highly probable that if the Internet isn't protected under Title II reclassification in the United States, the monstrous idea of slowing down the Internet to all but the highest bidder will burden not only the US but spread to the EU countries too. No matter what other political differences we may have among ourselves, it's clear that our duty as citizens of the Internet is to stop them. This vital issue affects us all.

The specifics, as explained by Senator Ron Wyden:

I wrote the Internet Tax Freedom Act. So I want to set the record straight about the false claim being peddled by opponents of net neutrality. They are saying things that aren’t true to try to stop the FCC from acting to protect the free and open Internet. 

The claim: If the FCC reclassifies broadband Internet access as a “common carrier” under Title II, consumers could be stuck with new taxes by state and local governments.
In a word: Baloney.

The facts:

1. Net Neutrality is not going to invalidate the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA). My colleagues and I knew people would try to tax the Internet if they could. So in ITFA Congress broadly defined the term “Internet access.” It is illegal to tax the internet. Under Title II or otherwise. The FCC could define the Internet as a series of tubes and ITFA would still prohibit taxes.

1. The “grandfather clause” in ITFA will not allow cities to suddenly open the Internet up to telecom taxes. If the FCC reclassifies broadband Internet, it will not change if states taxed Internet access before 1998. The FCC has broad authority, but it cannot rewrite history.

The bottom line: The Internet Tax Freedom Act will protect the Internet from taxes regardless of how the FCC defines Internet access. 

The opponents of the open Internet aren’t quitting. But the good news: neither are we.

In order to counter the aggressive attempts by some inconsiderate lawmakers to push special interests ahead of the public desire for a free and open Internet, the US public MUST exert pressure of their own. Last year, US President Barack Obama took the side of the Internet, but only a tsunami of popular support for Title II reclassification of the Internet in the United States made this possible.

The solution Americans have is clear: put your own lobbying pressure on top cable executives and and lobbyists who are trying to ruin the Internet.

What you are reading isn't an article of the more balanced kind, because the time for debate is over, and there is no space left for petty differences of opinion on this matter. It is a question of the very survival of the Internet in its correct form.

Failure to hammer the opponents of the Internet and protect this almighty instrument of the public, our means of achieving the freedom of expression that past body politics only fantasized of, would be unacceptable to all of us - particularly those of you who have become dependent on the popular Internet to communicate and unlock the truth.

Images via battleforthenet.com and Fight for the Future

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